7 days on, Tamil Nadu bus strike to continue. Here's why

13 January 2018

The strike by the transport workers was on its seventh day on Wednesday.

At a time when Tamil Nadu has been crippled by the bus strike for almost a week over a wage hike, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has introduced a bill to increase the salary of MLAs in the state Assembly. Following the disqualification of 18 MLAs from the ruling AIADMK, Leader of Opposition and DMK working president MK Stalin said the government did not have the requisite numbers to remain in power, reported news agency ANI. Amid the protest and noise in the House, sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran, who made his debut in the Tamil Nadu assembly after winning the December 21 RK Nagar by-election sat calmly in the House.

Transport corporation unions today said their agitation would continue till their demands on wage revision were met by the Tamil Nadu government. The Madras High Court which on Friday asked the striking workers to return to work, on Monday maintained the workers were entitled to their legitimate dues. The employees are in fact set to intensify protests after the state government issued notices to almost 60,000 workers for abstaining from work on 5 and 6 January, reports The Times of India.

As many as 17 trade unions, including those affiliated to the DMK and the Left, are on an indefinite strike, having rejected the government's hike proposal.

Tamil Nadu has over 22,000 buses with a workforce of about 143,000 employees and over 10 rounds of talks have been held between the trade unions and government representatives, including transport minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar.

Sony's Venom movie releases its first image
Attendees of the Brazil Comic-Con got the first info from director Ruben Fleischer as he talked to them from the Venom set. Their wealthy, powerful clientele aim to emerge from their shelter to build a new society post-apocalypse.

Few hours ago, the court urged striking Transport unions to resume to work immediately.